Lenin
Lenin was given to 43 boys in 2025, #2,910 among boys’ names; 1,727 Americans have been recorded with it since 1925 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,680 Americans named Lenin and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 16 years old and half are between 8 and 28.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Lenin by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Lenin mean?
Wiktionary, Portuguese section
Lenin is “a male given name from Russian”
Borrowed from Russian Ленин (Lenin).
/ˈlẽ.nĩ/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Portuguese section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Lenin?
#2,910 among boys’ names, 2025
Lenin fell from #2,124 in 2015 to #2,910 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 34.4 to 25.2 per million.
83 babies in 2018, the peak
Lenin peaked in 2018, when 83 boys were given it, #1,828 among boys’ names. The 43 births of 2025 are 52% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 43 | #2,910 | 25.2 |
| 2024 | 45 | #2,856 | 26.1 |
| 2023 | 46 | #2,783 | 26.9 |
| 2022 | 67 | #2,181 | 38.4 |
| 2021 | 63 | #2,242 | 36.0 |
| 2020 | 53 | #2,453 | 30.7 |
| 2019 | 64 | #2,202 | 35.7 |
| 2018 | 83 | #1,828 | 45.7 |
| 2017 | 71 | #2,010 | 38.4 |
| 2016 | 59 | #2,266 | 31.1 |
Every recorded year (57)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 66 | #2,124 | 34.4 |
| 2014 | 36 | #3,135 | 18.7 |
| 2013 | 38 | #2,977 | 20.1 |
| 2012 | 28 | #3,761 | 14.8 |
| 2011 | 35 | #3,215 | 18.4 |
| 2010 | 47 | #2,611 | 24.5 |
| 2009 | 43 | #2,825 | 21.7 |
| 2008 | 49 | #2,566 | 24.0 |
| 2007 | 43 | #2,788 | 20.7 |
| 2006 | 46 | #2,607 | 22.4 |
| 2005 | 49 | #2,387 | 24.5 |
| 2004 | 32 | #3,122 | 16.1 |
| 2003 | 38 | #2,655 | 19.2 |
| 2002 | 32 | #2,917 | 16.5 |
| 2001 | 38 | #2,544 | 19.6 |
| 2000 | 27 | #3,186 | 13.7 |
| 1999 | 29 | #2,907 | 15.1 |
| 1998 | 29 | #2,826 | 15.2 |
| 1997 | 27 | #2,868 | 14.3 |
| 1996 | 22 | #3,254 | 11.6 |
| 1995 | 21 | #3,260 | 11.0 |
| 1994 | 25 | #2,902 | 12.9 |
| 1993 | 17 | #3,752 | 8.7 |
| 1992 | 20 | #3,288 | 10.0 |
| 1991 | 17 | #3,557 | 8.4 |
| 1990 | 22 | #2,915 | 10.7 |
| 1989 | 15 | #3,735 | 7.5 |
| 1988 | 8 | #5,504 | 4.2 |
| 1987 | 14 | #3,440 | 7.5 |
| 1986 | 20 | #2,650 | 10.9 |
| 1985 | 10 | #4,221 | 5.4 |
| 1984 | 19 | #2,583 | 10.5 |
| 1983 | 15 | #3,013 | 8.4 |
| 1982 | 10 | #4,111 | 5.5 |
| 1981 | 13 | #3,333 | 7.3 |
| 1980 | 23 | #2,251 | 12.9 |
| 1979 | 16 | #2,852 | 9.3 |
| 1978 | 5 | #6,374 | 3.0 |
| 1977 | 16 | #2,739 | 9.7 |
| 1976 | 10 | #3,623 | 6.4 |
| 1975 | 12 | #3,164 | 7.7 |
| 1974 | 15 | #2,623 | 9.5 |
| 1972 | 6 | #4,749 | 3.7 |
| 1971 | 10 | #3,277 | 5.7 |
| 1970 | 5 | #5,143 | 2.7 |
| 1968 | 5 | #4,484 | 2.9 |
| 1925 | 5 | #4,606 | 4.5 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Lenin a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Lenin has been given almost only to boys: 5 girls in 57 years of records.
Girls and boys named Lenin: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Lenin, and how old are they?
1,680 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 1,727 Americans ever recorded as Lenin. The median Lenin alive today is 16 years old; half are between 8 and 28.
The 2020 Census counted 2,888 people named Lenin (82 women and girls, 2,806 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,391 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.1 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 111 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 255 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 583 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 734 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Lenin born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 9 | #1,765 | 1.6× |
| Texas | 6 | #2,456 | 0.8× |
Where Lenin is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Lenin is most over-represented in New York: since 1925 it was given 1.6 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Lenin with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 193,114 babies since 1880, Lenin is the third most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 43 of their 2,651 babies (1.6%), the second most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Lenin
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Lenin and names like it
- Compare Lenin and LeonBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sLenin peaked in 2018.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Lenin since 1910.
- Russian namesWiktionary’s origin for Lenin: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2018The year the most babies were named Lenin.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Lenin alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with LMost given first.